MOSCOW, July 22. /TASS/. The Russian government has all the information it needs to continue its fight against the coronavirus pandemic and make progress with its vaccination drive, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday.
"The government has all the data necessary to outline further steps to combat the pandemic and to continue the population’s vaccination at an accelerated pace," he said.
On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed dissatisfaction with the level of awareness in society about the coronavirus pandemic and vaccination at a meeting with the government. Journalists drew attention to the fact that during the meeting officials provided data on the bed capacity, the number of hospitalizations, the vaccination campaign, but regions did not share this information promptly. The Kremlin spokesman was asked whether the president’s instructions regarding greater openness of COVID-19 data should be expected.
"Actually, these instructions were formulated yesterday, they will be finalized. What the president said is the instruction," Peskov said in response.
However, he disagreed that the issue at hand was about the openness of data. "I cannot agree with you here. The fact is that the government crisis center receives much more data than is published. This is information on [the situation] in regions, much of it is purely technical, and a complete picture of what is going on is formulated based on this information, including technical," he explained. When asked whether the Kremlin considered the number of hospitalizations in regions to be a technical matter, Peskov said, "No, this is very important data, and the Health Ministry has it in full."
He also suggested that journalists who would like to receive more information than is published on official resources should contact the Health Ministry.
At the same time, Peskov sees no reason to worry about the openness of coronavirus-related data. "We believe that the data is published to the full extent," he said.